louis fed james ballard and john williams of the san francisco fed will be speaking later today. and walmart reports earnings before the open. so does chesapeake energy, hormel foods. aig, hp and newmont mining will follow after the close. we asked earlier if computer giant hp could be headed down the same road as dell. >> i don't think so. their debt is too high. hp is very much like a private company, but in the public marketplace. but dell has got 15 billion cash pile. so silver lake, obviously, they will put debt on that to take it private. >> hp can't afford that. >> they can't do that. >> interesting point there. walmart, meanwhile, reports fourth quarter earnings at 7:00 a.m. eastern. that's coming.. the world's largest retailer, forecast to earn $1.57 a share and nearly $128 billion in revenue. the results may offer further signs u.s. consumers are under financial stress, however. last week, a report showed leaked e-mails from a top executive who said the first two weeks of february were a total disaster for the company. patrick is senior equity analyst at mkm partners an